Role of duration of catheterization and length of hospital stay on the rate of catheter-related hospital-acquired urinary tract infections

OBJECTIVE Our aim is to prove that duration of catheterization and length of hospital stay (LOS) are associated with the rate of hospital-acquired urinary tract infections (UTI), while taking into account type of urinary catheter used, the most common organisms found, patient diagnosis on admission, associated comorbidities, age, sex, precautions that should be taken to avoid UTI, and comparison with other studies. METHODS The study was done in a university teaching hospital with a 920-bed capacity; this hospital is a tertiary care center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The study was done on 250 selected patients during the year 2010 as a retrospective descriptive study. Patients were selected as purposive sample, all of them having been exposed to urinary catheterization; hospital-acquired UTI were found in 100 patients. Data were abstracted from the archived patients' files in the medical record department using the annual infection control logbook prepared by the infection control department. The data collected were demographic information about the patients, clinical condition (diagnosis and the LOS), and possible risk factors for infection such as duration of catheterization, exposure to invasive devices or surgical procedures, and medical condition. RESULTS There was a statistically significant association between the rate of UTI and duration of catheterization: seven patients had UTI out of 46 catheterized patients (15%) at 3 days of catheterization, while 30 patients had UTI out of 44 catheterized patients (68%) at 8 days of catheterization (median 8 days in infected patients versus 3 days in noninfected patients; P-value <0.05), which means that the longer the duration of catheterization, the higher the UTI rate. There was a statistically significant association between the rate of UTI and LOS: three patients had UTI out of 37 catheterized patients (8%) at 10 days LOS, while 42 patients had UTI out of 49 catheterized patients (85.7%) at 18 days LOS. The longer the LOS, the higher the UTI rate: LOS for each patient (median 18 days for infected patients versus 10 days for noninfected patients; P-value <0.05), and number of hospital-acquired catheter-related UTI (100 patients had UTI out of 250 catheterized patients, P=0.04). CONCLUSION Reduction of the duration of catheterization and LOS of the patient have a positive impact in reduction of catheter-related UTI.